FLOYDCOUNTYGA.ORG
Floyd County Government Online

Sex Offender Task Force (Who lives on your street?)

This task force is the first of its kind in the state of Georgia. It was formed in response to a series of tragic events involving sex offenders and child abductions. The Task Force composes three different sex offender registries into one database, and quarterly meetings allow these agencies to keep better track of these sex offenders’ location.

The Sex Offender Task Force is comprised of:

The Floyd County Sheriff's Office (Major Tony Daniel, Lt. Mark Blanton)
The Floyd County Police Department (Investigator Teri Davis)
The Rome Police Department ( Investigator Stephanie Hill-Hudson )
The Floyd County Juvenile Court (Judge Timothy Pape)
The Rome Probation Office (Chief Patti Foster & Surveillance Ofcr. Phil Smith)
The Georgia Parole Office (Chief Tom Rucker)

Go to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Sex Offender Registry Search Page to find out the location of registered sex offenders in your community.

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The Clean House Program (“Clean it or lose it”)

Research has shown a positive correlation between sanitation, structure & discipline, and levels of violence. As sanitation and structure & discipline increase, events of violence decrease. There is a high level of accountability expected of the inmates at the Floyd County Jail. Inmates are required to keep their cellblock and cells clean at all times. Inspections are performed three days per week. Cells and cellblocks are inspected to ensure that they are clean, beds are made, trash is picked up, and items are in their proper place. Inmates are held accountable to this high standard both individually and as a group. Infractions result in a loss of privileges such as television, commissary, visitation, phones, etc.

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C.H.A.M.P.S. (Choosing Healthy Activities and Methods Promoting Safety)

The Floyd County Sheriff's Office announces the addition of
Darlington Lower School
as a participant in the CHAMPS Program.

Current CHAMPS Particpants:
Alto Park Elementary School
Armuchee Elementary School
Cave Spring Elementary School
Garden Lakes Elementary School
Johnson Elementary School
Model Elementary School
Pepperell Elementary School

The C.H.A.M.P.S. Team
(from left to right) Lt. Rodney Clemens, Ron Morris, Sheriff Tim Burkhalter,
Deputy Kathy Sinclair, (Pepperell student), and Paula Penson

Deputies partnering with educators developed a curriculum of 20 lessons for 5th graders. The curriculum includes such classes as Bullying, Choices & Consequences, Internet Safety, Home Alone Safety, Gangs, Peer Pressure, Methamphetamine, and Alcohol & Tobacco. The length of this course is 12 weeks and the School Board and the Sheriff work closely to determine the lessons that are pertinent to the needs of Floyd County.

Not only is the program flexible in allowing the school to choose its own curriculum, but it also allows the Deputy to share true experiences and incorporate learning activities while covering the objectives of each lesson plan.

Deputy Kathy Sinclair is currently assigned as our CHAMP Instructor and will be teaching your children for ten weeks about: home alone safety, child abduction, making the right choices, tobacco, alcohol, peer pressure, marijuana, and ATV safety. Deputy Sinclair has been employed in law enforcement for five years, and brings an invaluable learning experience to each and every child.

Contact info: 706-252-4677 or E-mail: ksinclair@floydboe.net

It is the desire of Georgia’s Sheriffs to see children participate in healthy activities that are drug-free, non-violent, and promote safety. For additional information, please visit the Georgia Sheriff’s Association website: www.georgiasheriffs.org

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Parent-Teacher Methamphetamine Education Program

This program is designed to inform educators & parents concerning the dangers of methamphetamine, to explain the symptoms of Meth use, the hazardous materials used to make Meth and what to do if any of the above mentioned are found. This program is offered free of charge as a public service of the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office.

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A.D.A.P. (Alcohol & Drug Awareness Program)

The Alcohol & Drug Awareness Program is a required course for students obtaining a Georgia drivers license. This program targets 10th graders and is taught by Officers. It educates students as to the dangers of drinking and driving and drug use and driving. It also teaches the students the consequences of DUI including loss of licenses. This program is offered by the Floyd County Sheriff's Office as a public service to our students and is free of charge.

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Sheriff’s Ride for Camp Good Times

This is an annual motorcycle ride sponsored by the Floyd County Sheriff's Office to benefit Camp Good Times. Camp Good Times is a summer camp sponsored by the Floyd County Recreation Authority for disadvantaged youth.

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Gang Watch

This program educates parents & teachers about gang activity, the precursors of upcoming gang activity, gang slang & graffiti and its meanings, and how to report any activity. This class also covers a short history of gangs operating in the United States and of what to expect if we don’t take a proactive approach to defend against gangs.

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K-9 Program

The Floyd County Sheriff's Office K-9 program features Champ, our newest Deputy and Mascot of our Office.

Champ is a Chocolate Lab brought in to help in our fight against illegal drugs in our schools and neighborhoods. Champ is also an educator, assisting our C.H.A.M.P.S. instructors in our schools. Champ is a certified Deputy Sheriff and is nationally certified in drug detection and tracking. He is trained to detect 4 scents - Marijuana, Methamphetamine, Cocaine, Heroin & their derivatives. Champ is also very helpful in our jail, conducting daily searches in cellblocks for drugs. Champ is maintained by Lt. Rodney Clemones a registered K-9 handler.

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Sheriff’s Santa

Sheriff’s Santa is a Christmas-time program offered by volunteer Deputies & staff to help less fortunate families provide toys for their children. This is our 8th year of Sheriff’s Santa and this program is increasing in popularity every year. Many shifts forgo drawing names for each other and instead adopt a family in need to assist with toys. Many of the children helped are children of inmates incarcerated here at the jail. This program also supports and works closely with Angel Express & Toys for Tots.

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Free on the Inside

Free on the Inside is our Jail Ministry program in its 18th year. This program was founded and is headed by Chaplain David Thornton himself a 20 year veteran of the Floyd County Sheriff's Office ministry.

Free on the Inside provides inmates at the jail the opportunity to worship by providing each inmate with a bible or other requested religious study material. It also offers weekly scheduled worship services staffed by 80 volunteers and is supported by 25 local churches. Other services include enlistment in bible study courses, counseling with inmates on a daily basis, support of the staff of the Sheriff's Office in times of need, and funding help for the G.E.D. program. Free on the Inside consists solely on contributions from the public and our churches. Anyone wishing to help support this worthwhile cause can send his or her gift to:

Free on the Inside Ministry
P.O.Box 754
Armuchee, GA 30105

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Sheriff’s Community Posse

The Sheriff’s Community Posse is an all-volunteer organization under the direct supervision of the Sheriff, that responds to the call of the Sheriff in times of great need or emergency. In times past, the Sheriff called out the Posse in the event of an escape or roundup of bad-guys. Today’s Posse is much different, yet in some ways the same. Although The Sheriff’s Community Posse today still responds to the call of the Sheriff in times of emergency, natural or man-made disaster, plane crash or other emergency event deemed worthy of a Posse “callout,” the goal is an eclectic function of support, community involvement, and emergency response.

Although the Sheriff can assign “arrest powers” to a posse member, very rarely does that ever happen. Community Posse members do not have arrest powers unless given so by the Sheriff, and the extent of those emergency powers last only until the event is exhausted.

The Sheriff’s Community Posse, when activated, does have the benefits (insurance, workers compensation, etc) of a Deputy Sheriff during the emergency event. All Posse members undergo an extensive background check by the Sheriff's Office and are not armed unless designated by the Sheriff. All Sheriff’s Community Posse members should have a valid ID card issued by the Sheriff's Office.

Today’s Sheriff’s Community Posse is multi-faceted and divided into three divisions:

The Emergency Unit

The Emergency Unit responds at the call of the Sheriff to the scene of such emergency, sets up command post and conducts search, rescue and recovery services at designated locations. This unit is trained on search methods, crime scene preservation, and immediately notifies the appropriate police agency upon recognizing a crime scene. This unit trains locally with the Floyd County Emergency Management Agency and is a modern day equivalent to its early predecessors. While many members still have horses, many others have ATVs, airplanes and boats that include a dive team.

The Support Unit

The Support Unit gathers resources for the emergency unit maintaining the Command Post & supplying the necessities for prolonged events such as food, water & shelter. The support unit also handles the finances of the Community Posse and schedules community events for the Posse. This unit maintains the demographics of the Posse by maintaining the lists of Posse members, phone numbers, resources available and carries the responsibility of coordinating the response of the Emergency Unit.

The Community Resource Unit

The Community Resource Unit’s goal is to play a proactive role throughout the community while being in touch with and responding to the needs of the community. Activities such as helping with organized events, the Sheriff’s Santa Program, and the CHAMPS Program are among those that will be performed by this unit. The goal is to create a positive image of the Sheriff’s Office while giving back to the community in both a proactive and reactive realm.

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T he Floyd County Sheriff’s Office is proud to partner with Nexcom of Georgia/Sprint-Nextel & the Pepperell High School Chapter of S.A.D.D. (Students Against Destructive Decisions) to offer in our community a twenty-four hour, confidential, telephone teen information line in which students can report illegal drug activities such as methamphetamines, cocaine, marijuana.

This program is part of the Sheriff’s Youth Initiative and the information provided will be turned over to the Rome/Floyd Metro Drug Task Force. The goals of the partnership are to provide all teens in Rome and Floyd County with an outlet to pass along tips about drug activity to law enforcement and that more S.A.D.D. Chapters can be implemented in the Rome/Floyd County area.

The new tip line number will be (706) 252-1031.

Are You O.K.?

A free service of daily phone calls to check on the safety of our elderly, homebound, or medically disabled, sponsored by the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office.

The Floyd County Sheriff’s Office can make sure the elderly and disabled members of our community are safe. They can feel a sense of security and caring just knowing a daily call will be made from the Sheriff’s Office to confirm all is well. The system is known as “Are You O. K?” “This system will address the needs of those living alone who may not have someone already checking on them daily.”

The “Are You O. K?” System uses a computer to call subscribers at the same time each day, seven days a week. If the resident is OK, all she or he has to do is pick up the phone and then hang it up. If there is no answer or the line is busy, the computer will call again. If repeated calls receive no answer, a Sheriff’s Deputy, or designated volunteer, will be dispatched to check on the resident.

There are other alert systems available, but they require residents to activate the alert if they have fallen or passed out. With “Are You O. K?” a phone call at the same time each day is enough to let emergency personnel know that the resident is okay. This gives reassurance that many elderly and disabled people need. It can improve a person’s level of independence and can prevent or delay the participant’s move to family members or assisted living facilities.

If you are a participant and you know you will be away from home for a few days, simply call the Sheriff’s Office and we will remove you from the call list for the period of time you’ll be gone.

The cost is free for residents of Floyd County. You simply fill out an application form, send it in to the Sheriff’s Office and we can enter the information into a computer and you will start getting your daily phone calls. We also have contingency plans for severe weather and our “Are You O. K?” participants. All participants are called if there is a bad weather situation. If the person is medically dependent on oxygen supply or any treatments that require electric power, that information will be available in the “Are You O. K?” system and we will know to send help immediately. If the weather is so severe as to disable our “Are You O. K?” System, participants are called manually. If the phone lines are down, we can utilize both Deputies and Jail Officers to make personal contacts.

If you would like to join the “Are You O. K?” telephone reassurance program, contact the Floyd County Sheriff’s Office at (706)-291-4111, ext 131 or 831 for an application.

Are You O.K.? Information Sheet
Are You O.K.? Application